Top brands of 2008 owned by Nintendo, EA, Activision, and not Sony
by JC Fletcher 
{ Jun 30th 2009 at 9:00PM }
And boy, did they. The top brand of the year, Guitar Hero -- perhaps you've heard of it -- was responsible for $992 million in US sales in 2008. The next two brands, Mario Bros. and Rock Band, generated $761 million and $662 million, respectively.
One company is notably absent from the top brands list: "Most strikingly," the report reads, "Sony had no top 30 brands for the third year in a row." Microsoft had two brands on the list (Gears of War and Fable) and Nintendo had four (Mario Bros., Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Pokémon). See the list of brands after the break.
- Guitar Hero (Activision Blizzard) $ 992 million
- Mario Brothers (Nintendo) $ 761 million
- Rock Band (Electronic Arts) $ 662 million
- Call Of Duty (Activision Blizzard) $ 446 million
- Wii Fit (Nintendo) $ 407 million
- Grand Theft Auto (Take-Two Interactive) $ 361 million
- Madden Football (Electronic Arts) $ 312 million
- Wii Play (Nintendo) $ 261 million
- LEGO (LucasArts) $ 224 million
- Star Wars (LucasArts) $ 180 million
- Sonic (Sega) $ 163 million
- Gears Of War (Microsoft) $ 146 million
- The Sims (Electronic Arts) $ 143 million
- Tom Clancy (Ubisoft) $ 130 million
- Pokemon (Nintendo) $ 119 million
- Need For Speed (Electronic Arts) $ 106 million
- Warcraft (Activision Blizzard) $ 104 million
- WWE (THQ) $ 103 million
- Fallout (Bethesda Softworks) $ 100 million
- NCAA Football (Electronic Arts) $ 94 million
- Tiger Woods (Electronic Arts) $ 89 million
- FIFA (Electronic Arts) $ 79 million
- Imagine (Ubisoft) $ 78 million
- Final Fantasy (Square Enix) $ 78 million
- Dance Dance Revolution (Konami) $ 78 million
- Metal Gear Solid (Konami) $ 77 million
- Fable (Microsoft) $ 77 million
- NBA Live (Electronic Arts) $ 71 million
- Mortal Kombat (Midway Games) $ 70 million
- Petz (Ubisoft) $ 70 million
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mr nimblewick @ Jun 30th 2009 9:03PM
Boy, even Sonic made the list.
WREturns @ Jun 30th 2009 9:18PM
Mr Khan will be gloating for weeks!
Mr Khan @ Jun 30th 2009 9:36PM
:)
Dance Mofo @ Jun 30th 2009 9:45PM
boy even WWE made the list
MowDownJoe @ Jun 30th 2009 9:07PM
30. Petz (Ubisoft) $ 70 million
I'm not fond of Sony's business practices, but I would've preferred anything of theirs over this.
Premature ejaculation man @ Jun 30th 2009 9:09PM
Its times like these where I wish I were an investor with a time machine.
fwacce @ Jun 30th 2009 9:21PM
You know, you've been saying "I'm coming!" for a very long time now. I'm beginning to think your really not that premature.
Drew @ Jun 30th 2009 9:39PM
Its cumming. And, what?
The Baron @ Jun 30th 2009 10:29PM
It can be both!
MooseMuffin @ Jun 30th 2009 9:12PM
Only counting retail sales must be drastically underestimating the value of the warcraft brand.
The Baron @ Jun 30th 2009 10:30PM
Indeed. If you think about it, the sales of Wrath of the Lich King would not have even been equal to 3 months worth of subscription income.
And thats if you don't factor in the cost of manufacturing discs, distribution, and advertisement.
MystileArmor @ Jun 30th 2009 9:13PM
I'm surprised to see WarCraft that far down the list, to be honest.
tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 30th 2009 9:16PM
Well, even though Sony themselves may not like this...as a fan of a lot of their excellent first party games, at least they're making us gamers happy :\
WREturns @ Jun 30th 2009 9:17PM
And that's all they care about too, tmac.
Mike @ Jun 30th 2009 9:38PM
That's all the developers and the PR people care about, is making people happy. Which is good. Investors, on the other hand, like to see people happy with open wallets. This is the kind of list that'll get first/second-party developers like Team Ico and the God of War guys shut down and Sony will start publishing a bunch of Wii Fit clones.
WREturns @ Jun 30th 2009 9:40PM
Cue the scary music! The end is nigh!
The Baron @ Jun 30th 2009 10:34PM
Sad but true. Sony just can't afford to keep up the fantastic quality of their AAA first-party titles if nobody's buying them. Expect their next console to be similar in concept to the Wii - cheap and mainstream - with only the bare minimum of first-party hardcore games. Ratchet and Clank and God of War will probably be among the few franchises to survive.
WREturns @ Jun 30th 2009 9:16PM
Man, Nintendo sure does know how to make something out of nothing.
Rob @ Jun 30th 2009 9:21PM
That's because they have ancient magic. How else do you think they have made so many people enthralled with their products?
WREturns @ Jun 30th 2009 9:42PM
How come ancient magic is always the best kind? Nobody's ever like, "The only way we can beat this thing is with brand-spankin'-new magic!"
mr nimblewick @ Jun 30th 2009 9:51PM
"How come ancient magic is always the best kind?"
I know, right? Magic has come a long f--kin' way since then.
Rob @ Jun 30th 2009 10:03PM
Because it always seems to have shit to defeat the evil foe your facing, especially if they are ancient as well.
The Baron @ Jun 30th 2009 10:35PM
Why is ancient magic the best kind?
Because good spells are freakin' hard to remember.
sony boy @ Jun 30th 2009 9:21PM
well, sony is probably the only one who makes new IP's more than any other company.
CzAr @ Jun 30th 2009 11:14PM
Why did they have to include "Not Sony" ?
I expect news, not brand bashing.
Jack Tretton @ Jun 30th 2009 9:22PM
23. Imagine (Ubisoft) $ 78 million
What the effing eff is Imagine?
/googles "imagine ubisoft"
Ah. What a pity.
atrimus @ Jun 30th 2009 9:23PM
outside of a few (namely Rock Band, Gears of War, MGS and one or two others) there's absolutey nothing on that list that interests me in the slightest, especially not to where i can see they've made the money they have on quality. lately i've found myself enjoying the most niche, non-million-selling video games. i hope this isn't a sign that i'm becoming a dinosaur in gaming.
Cosmo (formerly Chin-Poh) @ Jun 30th 2009 9:25PM
Nah, your just breaking the mold, may I join you?
razer922 @ Jun 30th 2009 9:25PM
23 Imagine (Ubisoft) $ 78 million
26 Metal Gear Solid (Konami) $ 77 million
I facepalmed and wept at the same time.
Sly @ Jun 30th 2009 9:25PM
strange, so did i. but imagine does appeal to a much wider audience than metal gear does.
tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 30th 2009 9:36PM
The fact that it appeals to anyone is sad enough.
razer922 @ Jun 30th 2009 9:36PM
Yeah, that's true.
Still pretty pathetic that games for tweens beat out a legendary series and its greatest game yet (IMO). Quantity over quality in this case (as far as sales figures go).
At least Fallout broke 9 figures.
WREturns @ Jun 30th 2009 9:55PM
Eh, nobody should be surprised. Hell, nobody should be worried, for that matter. Transformers 2 will make more money than Gone, Baby, Gone. The newest Dan Brown novel will sell more copies than the newest David Sedaris book. And people will continue to watch ABC Family. But there will still be stuff that kicks ass. The fact is that most people enjoy shit with zero critical value because they're mentally handicapped as far as taste goes. Oh well. I'm not starving for hardcore games. Are you?
Roto13 @ Jun 30th 2009 10:27PM
Considering there was one MGS game last year and about a hundred gazillion Imagine games, what's the big deal?
Jason Statham (Aka Vegeta) @ Jun 30th 2009 10:34PM
It's not really that surprising. I mean no matter how good the MGS franchise is, it isn't a recognizable franchise amongst the mainstream.
Sly @ Jun 30th 2009 9:25PM
i think the fact that no sony brands are on the list is less surprising than the fact that the sims is at #13. i think sony's brands are less recognizable with the exception of god of war.
Longhorn of Myon [PSN: MariusElijah] @ Jun 30th 2009 9:31PM
yeah because they started creating new IPs instead of making sequels to their PS2 lineup which is a good/bad thing
Also we all know they suck at marketing
Mr Khan @ Jun 30th 2009 9:36PM
It's the double-edged sword of Sony's tendency to ditch their big mascots just as they are beginning to really get strong, and their tendency to promote lots of new IPs. It means very few (if any) tired and stale Sony franchises, and a good mix of originality (LBP, Uncharted, Resistance, etc), but you lose name recognition fiercely.
Imagine if they had held on to Crash Bandicoot and Spyro through the PS2 era, they could have built them into icons on the back of PS2's conquest.
Mike @ Jun 30th 2009 9:52PM
Sony would've indeed done well to keep those classic PS1 franchises, but it didn't and now it's trying too hard to push it's newer IPs as long-time classics, so hard that staleness is starting to result. Take Ratchet & Clank for example. One could argue that it to Playstation is Mario to Nintendo, being a colorful adventure game. Since 2002, there have been 7 primary games (ie, not including spin-offs or expansions like Quest for Booty). Mario has had 6 primary games since 1985. (I'm not arguing that Mario as a whole has not become stale, just the primary platformers in the series have not).
atrimus @ Jun 30th 2009 9:56PM
well, if this is their strategy them i'm all for it. sure, i'd love to see the next Sly Cooper or Jak and Daxter, but inFamous and Uncharted are kick-ass alternatives.
sonicspike41 @ Jul 1st 2009 12:56AM
@Mike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_(series)#Main_series
I count 12 main Mario games, and that's not even including things like Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, Super Mario All-Stars, Mario & Luigi, Mario Party, Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Strikers, Mario & Sonic, Dr. Mario, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong....
Mario is everywhere Nintendo is. I can't think of many recent core games that haven't at least had a cameo of him. Metroid Prime serves one example, but that started with Retro.
sam @ Jul 1st 2009 6:01AM
@sonic: All depends how you count 'main'. They're counting NSMB, which I certainly wouldn't count as 'main' entries in the series, even if they are quite good.
oh hey talking of sonic, I was pretty surprised to see him so high up the list. Seriously, I wouldn't have expected Sonic to be ahead of Imagine or Petz or MGS etc. Although, that said... I notice DDR is still on the list... I love DDR and all but how tf did that happen...
alienterrorist @ Jul 2nd 2009 10:22AM
@atrimus, while I do agree with you, i would DIE for a new jak game. If they even announced it, I would go out right know and bye a PS3!!!
Courtney @ Jun 30th 2009 9:38PM
Ummm, unless I'm missing something, there was a fourth company in that list with more than one $100+ million brand. LucasArts shows up with two: Lego and Star Wars, though that may not count as they don't own the Lego brand, just publish it.
Julio @ Jun 30th 2009 9:40PM
that is a sh*tload of plastic
teamamerica @ Jun 30th 2009 9:44PM
Theres a simple explanation for this... Sony isn't relying heavily on their already established franchises this year and instead opting for new intersting IPs instead of artificially keeping so many franchises alive like many of the other companies are doing...
Mike @ Jun 30th 2009 9:55PM
New IPs are great for the hardcore gamer, but the risk is bad for investors, which is especially so on the PS3 since it's already been wildly unprofitable for the company due to the huge cost to development the console, such as Cell and Blu-ray.
Phil @ Jun 30th 2009 9:59PM
There is nothing artificial about the tens, no, hundreds of millions of dollars that these franchises are making.
"Sony isn't relying heavily on their already established franchises this year.."
Or for the last 2 years for that matter. As the article states, this is the third year running where Sony doesn't feature here on the top 30.
PARANOID365 @ Jun 30th 2009 10:22PM
@ teamamerica,
I call bullshit on this new IP excuse because if you would of read the article it states the following:
"Sony had no top 30 brands for the third year in a row."
So apparently it's not just this year, (as you had stated), it's pretty much encompasses the whole PS3 life span, (up till now).
What this story really speaks to is Sony's blatant arrogance, and their stubborn belief that they can continue to do things their way, (good, bad, or ugly), and the industry, and the gamers, will automatically follow like sheep just because their Sony.
So Sony, (in the famous words of Dr. Phil), how's it workin' for ya ??
VaultICEE @ Jun 30th 2009 9:45PM
When are people going to realize that Guitar Hero and all of these other shovelware brands are mediocre?
Geez, next thing you know talentless rappers and movies with 22% approval on Rotten Tomatoes will sell big...